Turf Restaurant & Lounge

A favorite.

It isn’t Turf any more. It’s now Ludi’s. Named after the owner’s daughter. Run by a filipino family now. Otherwise, still the same friendly service, the same good food, and the same price range (I think it’s gone up maybe afew cents to a dollar, nothing bad).
My egg and ham breakfast sandwich is still yummy, so it’s all good.

Wow… this place is unique. Having just got out of a show at the Triple Door, the Turf was a change of pace to say the least. The clientele is quite varied here, from ostensibly normal people to the downright weird. Engaging too, whether you were particulary interested or not. It’s a dive for sure but it has its charm. The bartender was really friendly and poured a stiff drink. No to mention drinks are pretty cheap too. Not a bad place to either start or end the night.

Scene & Heard at Turf:
1) «You want To –go hon?»
2) «Yes we take cards»
3) «Yeah we have an ATM»
4) Whiskey… and customers drinking whiskey at 5:30am
5) Lumpia: 3 for a dollar fitty
6) Men in white collars and business suits
8) Men with no collars and track suits
I think this place never closes. It’s the friendliest dive in all of downtown. You can probably get a pound of food here to go for less than $ 5, doesn’t matter if it’s good, it’s cheap as hell. I would recommend this place for breakfast when you’re feeling McDonalds cheap but you don’t want McDonalds, or if you’re seeking a cheap bite after a night out at the Showbox.

Host: n/​a
Waitress: 4.0
Food: — taste, presentation: 4.0
Property — style, décor, ambiance: 3.5
Cool bar!

This is my favorite bar in Seattle. I want it to stay the way it is. So, DON’T GO IN HERE. IT’S SCARY. Go to the Alibi down the lane from TURF, you’ll have a much better time and people will be into your cargo pants and bermuda shorts. Don’t go to TURF. STAY AWAY FROM TURF. It’s MY TURF.

Greasy dive diner down town. Full of weirdos crack heads and pimped out OG’s in their 60‘s. Average food quick service, come for the breakfast. Divey

I so, so badly want to like this place. From the outside it exudes the same sort of dumpiness that my favorite San Diego bar (Nite Owl) patented, and lord knows I love a good dive. If it’s dirty and sticky and the patrons are full of crazy it is usually a touchdown.
Turf can check off dirty, sticky, and crazy. Unfortunately, it can also check off $ 4 wells (I know they’re downtown and on prime real estate, but REALLY?) and just sort of an off vibe. It’s hard to relax when everyone’s eyes are on you, especially when you can pretty much hear the «What the hell are you doing here intruding on our good time?» blowing out of their brains. It is also hard to relax when a pair of cops glare at you the whole time because they think you are there to either sell or buy drugs. Note to cops: if I were going to sell/​buy, it would not be right in front of you! Plus there are approximately fifty people selling smack right outside at any given time. What the hell.
Turf, you are no Nite Owl. You bring me down.

Because I’ve never tried any hardcore drugs, much less the recreational type and I can’t think of any friends that are so afflicted, I don’t think I’d be able to easily gain access to said vices if I found myself down on my luck and just hankering to shoot up some smack. If I did find myself in such a predicament, the first place I would go would be Turf. I’m not saying there was any illegal drug use going on in here — in fact it’s quite the opposite, it is clear the management is intent on dissuading such use. But I’m guessing someone in the back bar of turf would be able to point me in the right direction.
We stopped here on a Thursday afternoon dive-​bar crawl around 4pm and were not disappointed. There’s about 10 tables in front and a small counter with quick service of some tasty food. The egg roll appetizer was huge and was more than enough to re-​fuel about 8 people. The back bar was tiny and packed, with people and a full bar with pull-​tabs!
While I’m not recommending any single ladies go into Turf alone at night, I definitely recommend you to stop by with a few friends for a beer or two and a quick bite to eat — Just make sure you take care of your business elsewhere because there’s a five minute limit on the bathroom.

Reuben Sandwich — Delicious and gigantic
Fries — Delicious and gigantic
Egg Roll Appetizer — Delicious and gigantic
Bud Light — Delicious and normal sized
Culture of Bar — MmmMmm Delicious
Here’s a fun little story…
I ordered a beer at the bar and turned around to talk to one of my friends. While turning, I happen to bump into a very small woman who was standing well within my comfort zone. I apologized stating that I am a pretty tall guy and didn’t see her down there. I smiled at her, but didn’t receive one in return. The woman seemed like she was about to cry and muttered something along the lines of «waahy youuuuu knock meee dowwwwwn.» Mind you, I didn’t even come close to knocking her over, it was a light accidental hipcheck. But she was upset, and extremely intoxicated. I moved out of her way and we went our separate directions forever. Although it just happened yesterday, I have a feeling that I’ll never forget that drunk little lady I ran into on a Thursday Afternoon at the Turf.
Just one of the many interesting characters we came across while there. T’was a fun hour of my life.
Complete dive bar, you can’t get that kind of personality in many other places downtown.

After years of living and working in downtown I mustered up the courage to enter Turf one afternoon and it’s a decision I haven’t regretted. Wading through the cast of characters that constantly linger outside to enter has evolved from absolute deterrence to free entertainment. Never in my life have I heard a spontaneous sing-​a-​long to Whitney Houston’s «The Greatest Love of All.» It was almost as good as Randy Watson & Sexual Chocolate’s version and that in and of itself deserves a star in my humble opinion.
No cook in the Turf’s ever won a James Beard Award. It’s a classic piece of Americana serving up breakfast all day and crinkle cut French fries with your burger. The fare is satisfying, filling, and downright cheap. The waitresses are friendly and I often wonder how colourful their shifts have been. I haven’t regretted patronizing the place and I will do so again soon.

Just came back from visiting seattle and my family and i ate at this place twice. We loved it! Though we went during the day each time so i can not testify for how it is at night. But both times the food was so good and cheap. It should only be one dollar sign $ instead of two because the food was cheap and a lot of it! Besides, the great food, it is a local diner that gives you a little taste of seattle. It is not your typical tourist hot spot so many people there are regulars (which the waitresses knew by name :), which was both interesting and fun.
Also, i would like to say that the service there was great! We had a different female waitress each time and both were so nice and funny. It definitely made the experience even better. If i am ever in seattle again, i will definitely stop in there again because of its great food and low prices. If i lived in Seattle, i definitely would be one of those regulars!

So my friend told me there’s a cheap and good teriyaki place on 2^nd & Pike, near the Turf. I headed down there on my lunch, saw a few teriyaki items on the menu board outside, and wandered in. Hmm, this is weird. The Turf is totally a divey diner that serves burgers, shakes, breakfast and… teriyaki. In fact you can even get your teriyaki with fries instead of salad. Though skeptical about the quality of my meal, the waitress was super nice (called me «honey» like five times) and my chicken, rice, and salad came to just over $ 6 with tax. While soaking in the atmosphere I noticed that the diner turns into a bar, most of the patrons were pretty sketchy, and the bathrooms have signs that warn of a 5 minute limit. Hmm, it just gets more and more interesting. My food arrived pretty darn quick. The salad was not your typical teriyaki pile of shredded cabbage, but large pieces of lettuce, one slice of tomato, and ranch dressing. The chicken teriyaki was just OK, and made me finally come to terms with the fact that I don’t really like the bland sweetness of teriyaki sauce. But the portion was generous and I can’t really complain about getting two meals for less than $ 7.
When I got back to work my friend told me I was supposed to go to the teriyaki joint across the street from the Turf! D’oh! She couldn’t believe I actually went in there, and after reading the other reviews, neither can I! But in spite of all the sketchiness, I never felt in danger and the hostess/​waitress was very sweet. My meal was cheap (and several hours later it hasn’t made me ill) but just not good. I feel kinda special for accidentally eating at a homeless hangout, but wouldn’t come back. Not for the food or the entertainment.

Despite the shady surroundings that it’s in, and the sorts of ‘unique’ people stumbling in, I really enjoyed this place.
It’s just like a truck stop restaurant. Despite being downtown by Pikes Place anf having other variety, I liked their specials and the food quality was pretty damn good (rice, salad, Teriyaki chicken)
Waitress was extremely friendly and helpful. Lots of caring people and music was a great mix of everything.
If you have an open mind, don’t judge, looking for a quick/​cheap bite to eat, I would hit this spot up.
Will visit this place again when in the area :)

This diner made me feel right at home (coming from the Downtown Eastside neighborhood of Vancouver), only the food was a lot better and they actually had counter service. Cost about twice as much as a DTES dive as well (how come it seems impossible to find a $ 3 breakfast joint in Seattle?). I ate their mushroom swiss burger and fries after a 5 hour bus ride, which probaby increased their apetizing characters. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed the burger (and the fact that the vegetables were stacked neatly as a side), although the fries came from a bag.
A lot of people drinking at noon, which Im unfamiliar with because most places in BC have drinking OR food, with the occasional bar that serves a tiny menu of overpriced drunk dishes. Whiskeys and beers seemed to be the primary concern here, apart from the few morbidly obese or incredibly old diners who walked through. Either way, after a frustrating search for breakfast (that should have probably started and ended at Pike Place) this was a completely sastisfactory result

Oooof. How do I even pick a number of stars for this place?
What can you use as a basis for comparison for a place like this?
It’s nuts that a place like this can even persist downtown, given the lease rates. Classic dive in every way. Bathrooms locked up like vaults to keep the junkies out. Cops pretty much permanently stationed here during the evening.
It’s a fun place as rowdy frontier type spots go. You know you’re going to see some characters. People have walked out of this place and onto the front page of the Times with wacky behavior. Every time I walk by and look in the bar windows, I see people who look they might have just gotten out of jail that morning. I drank here before Motorhead with a bunch of friends, and let’s just say I wouldn’t order anything that wasn’t high enough proof to sterilize surgical instruments. Their top shelf stuff is well stuff at plenty of other bars. This is one of the few places I’ve ever visited that made me think I might be enough of a snob that loosening up would probably be good for my attitude. It’s pretty rough around the edges at the Turf, and rough around the middle, too.

I was surprised to see The Turf listed in the Stranger as Seattle’s 2^nd-​most intimidating dive bar. This is such a great place to hit up in the early afternoon for hashbrowns or a french dip sandwich on a super squishy white french roll. I order the thousand island on purpose just so I can see what shade of neon orange the latest batch is. You get more than you pay for here: food, beverages, and people watching. The staff doesn’t put up with any crap from the less-​coherent who might stumble in, but they’ll get you taken care of in a flash.
You might find it strange they have amazing lumpia (egg rolls) and fried rice along side diner standards like chicken fried steak on the menu. The teriyaki lunch combo is a great deal and really tasty.

Horrible and wonderful. I have only run into this place once or twice to grab some takeout and each time found myself watching quite a heated argument at the bar. Seems like a few seedier characters end up in here with a bit too much PBR and items to rant about. Not sure that I would ever come here for a drink.
With that said, the food was really great. Greasy sure, good though. It tasted like America.

While it wouldn’t bother me much to see Gordon Ramsey’s head explode (per a previous review), I don’t think I’ll be returning unless I get a hot tip that he’s headed east from the Market.
This place is greasy, grimy and just plain scary. I’m hard to scare, but I was just waiting for a raid, by either the government or the mob, to go down the whole time I was there. The waitress balked at bringing me a drink, though I am 30 and look older. My cocktail was in a tiny water glass, and tasted as dirty as everything else in the place. The corned beef hash was one of the greasiest things I’ve ever seen, and I LIKE greasy food, but this was way, way too much. The characters are pretty interesting, you can watch the regulars on the pull tab machines, but it’s not a place I would, for example, eat or drink.

Turf is a «must see» spot for those who want to be able to say «I’ve been to Seattle» and not just mean «pike place, space needle, yadayada».
With an eclectic menu of cheap comfort food to diner staples to west coast ethnic fare, a chrome-​laminate-​n-​vinyl décor, and some characters and personalities that would be right at home in a schlocky double-​feature, the dining portion of Turf is worth its weight in gold… grimy, unapologetic, «this is street», gold.
The attached bar, and the patrons who I’m absolutely sure seem to have genetically bonded to their respective bar stools, offer up exactly what you’d expect… sharp tongues, quick wit, and stiff, no-​frills liquor. Not spirits. Not cocktails (though that’s what the sign says). Liquor.
Don’t go alone at night. Don’t go meekly. Don’t go skittishly.
Don’t miss Turf…